There are interviews that advance public understanding, and there is the phone call that CNN’s Jake Tapper conducted with President Donald Trump Sunday evening, which critics from across the media landscape described as “pathetic,” “just embarrassing,” and evidence that the network is already operating under the editorial influence of the acquisition it hasn’t completed yet.
Tapper gave Trump airtime on CNN Sunday night by phone, per Raw Story’s coverage today. During the interview, Trump reportedly used the platform to push for changes to CNN’s content that would make it more favorable to himself, which is the kind of editorial input that media organizations typically decline to take from the subjects they cover, and which CNN, which is in the process of being acquired by Paramount in a deal that Ellison’s allies are openly discussing in terms of what it means for CNN’s coverage of Trump, apparently accepted as the terms of a Sunday night call.
“In a normal world, this would be an astonishing, devastating admission that the president is using the power of the federal government to help private investors change a news network’s content to make it more favorable to himself,” wrote journalist Stewartson on X to his 150,000 followers. “But this will just float on by.” Mehdi Hasan wrote: “This is just embarrassing.” The response from media critics was sufficiently unified that Raw Story covered it as a “chorus of criticism,” which is the phrase publications use when multiple prominent voices are saying the same thing at roughly the same time.
The Paramount acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which includes CNN, has been approved by the Justice Department without divestiture conditions. Allies of Paramount CEO David Ellison have been discussing relocating the company’s headquarters out of California to avoid a state lawsuit expected this week. California, New York, Washington, and Connecticut are preparing to sue to block the merger on antitrust grounds, per HuffPost. The merger is proceeding regardless of the state lawsuit, which means the editorial relationship between CNN and the person who calls in on Sunday nights is the version that the merger’s critics said would exist and which the merger’s defenders said would not.
Tapper presented the Graham Platner rape allegation to Platner’s accuser live on air last week, asking directly whether she considered it rape. She said yes. He then gave Trump a Sunday phone call that critics described as pathetic. Both of these things happened in the same week.
When a network anchor interviews a rape allegation accuser directly and then gives the president a Sunday night call to push for favorable coverage, which segment represents the journalism?
Sources
Raw Story: ‘Just embarrassing’: Jake Tapper roasted en masse over ‘pathetic’ Trump interview
People: Trump Lashes Out at CNN’s Jake Tapper Live on Air for Question About Iran: ‘Don’t Talk About It’
